PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 2/19/19)
-Originally, I came up with the idea for this episode back in season three, and I actually started working on the script. However, in the original episode, RK was in Halley's role, and Jaylynn was more of an antagonist. The two end up in a fight at lunch while standing on top of the table, and RK knocks Jaylynn out. Everybody shows sympathy for Jaylynn because she's a girl and don't believe that she helped instigate the fight. Jaylynn ends up letting the other kids believe that RK attacked her unprovoked, and RK becomes a social pariah. Meanwhile, Sparky and Buster start a men's rights group after seeing how the situation has unfolded. The episode was going to tackle misandry (fear/hatred of men) and yellow journalism (journalism that relies on sensationalism and exaggeration to survive). It was also originally called "Yellow Rights." However, I got bored with the episode and never went back to it. Looking back, the episode would have most likely aged like spoiled milk, and Jaylynn's portrayal would have been terrible. I'm glad I didn't go through with it at the time.
-I thought the idea was interesting for season seven, but I knew it needed work for the reasons I just mentioned. I changed the title and replaced RK with Halley, which got rid of the misandry themes. I also decided to have Halley be the one to help spread the rumors, but I didn't want her to be an antagonist. That's when I decided to come up with the twist of Jaylynn being in on it and having her stage a feud with Halley for their entertainment. I also didn't want Halley to be the one to spread the rumors because it would have been out of character, so I instead had her let the rumors continue and feed into them. Her not telling Jaylynn about it was just a case of bad timing.
-For a while, I had no idea how to start the episode. This is part of the reason why it came out a week late (the third, and hopefully the last, episode this season to be pushed back). I came up with the setpiece at the book fair to help me out, and from there, the subplot to help the episode reach its length. Even then, I still didn't know how to start the episode. The first few scenes were actually a little uncomfortable to get through because my writer's block was flaring up.
-Originally, RK was going to be involved in the subplot, but the writing ended up changing that. There are times where I'll write an episode with certain plans and from the scenes/lines I come up with, things begin going in a different direction, almost like the episode is telling me what it wants to be. This was one of those times.
-The book fair was a huge event at school when I was the age of the kids. Some of the subplot's events were taken from real-life experiences. For example, the world records book that Buster bought was similar to a world records book from Scholastic that I bought at the fair many years ago, and ended up wearing out due to how much I read it. The baseball teams poster was something that I bought and still own to this day (even though it was already outdated when I bought it). Sparky's traumatic experience with the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin book was based on what happened to me after a past book fair. I bought a book called Football's Super Six that one of my friends already owned and I wanted more than anything else. One day, I left the book on the playground (which was just the concrete ground enclosed in a huge cell-like structure) during recess and I never saw it again.
-Buster references a fictional book about the unauthorized history of the children's animated series Little Bear (1995-2003), which was based on the original books written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.
-Jaylynn references Muhammad Ali's original name, Cassius Clay, which he changed in 1964 to reflect his newfound Muslim beliefs.
-Wade references two former PBS shows: Reading Rainbow (1983-2006) and Learn to Read (which started airing in 1987 and reran for several years on various PBS affiliates, despite only producing 30 episodes).
-Jaylynn references Manny's original character trait of him hating the Dominican Republic and Dominican people. At the time, I thought it was a funny running gag since Manny was from Puerto Rico and his hatred was never explained. Like a lot of things in this series, it was eventually phased out. The first time I addressed this was in "12 Angry Kids" last season, where Jaylynn states that it is one of the reasons she doesn't like Manny (due to her being Dominican on her mother's side).
-Buster checking to see if he left gum in his world records book was a callback to a joke in "Winner Takes Off" where he checked to see if Jaylynn took the gum he left in his math notebook.
-I wasn't planning to play any songs in this episode, but when I was writing the fight scene, I decided to use "Glass Shatters" to add to the intensity.
-For at least a couple months, I had no other song in mind to play during the end credits but "No Shame in My Game," which actually deals with spreading false rumors and not believing all the stories you hear.